Archive for September, 2010

I found the online version of the article printed in the February 2010 iLook magazine. iLook magazine is a cool fashion magazine that is not main stream. Unfortunately also online they used the wrong Chinese character for my name… My name in Chinese is 伊泉. This is how the article should read with my real name:

Our early morning meet-ups are getting regular. And this location at Deshengmen is nice as there are not many people coming to stare at us. And it is big enough for safe practicing. Today another guy that used to do bike tricks showed up with his wife. He knows the other guys too. Suzan keeps filming documenting how Yu Changqing is getting back to his passion of bicycle tricks and how slowly the former Beijing bike trick gang is showing up. Somehow it reminds me of the Buena Vista Social Club in Cuba and how the former musicians got back together at old age to follow their passion. I am so happy to be part of this.

The photographers from last tame came back. This time they did not only hide in the bushes, they also stood in the center to take pictures.

We still trained our typical tricks and did not let us get annoyed by the comments like „you need to start doing your trick over there and then ride really close to this edge of the stone, then we can get a better picture“ as we do not risk our lives for a good photo.

As we move inexorably forward like cartons of eggs on the supermarket conveyor belt of life, there are three sure signs at autumn is imminent: an invigorating chill in the air; plumbing problems caused by flushing leaf piles down the toilet; and of course the bike industry trade shows. Outside of the cycling world, people have the good sense to ignore trade shows unless they actually work in that industry and are forced to go to them. This is true even if the trade show involves something they use….

Apparently, Levi Strauss decided to do its pop-cultural „fingerbanging“ in Denver and Boulder instead of New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles „because the scene is still young and developing organically in Colorado,“ and its worth noting that some lonely middle-aged men hang around schools and playgrounds for exactly the same reason. …

… It’s inspiring to see that fixed-gear crews are reinventing themselves as focus groups, and it’s reassuring to know that young people are more willing than ever to leap to action when a company with over $4 billion in annual revenue asks them to „help us help you spend your disposable income on crap.“ I’m sure Levi’s left after the weekend with a greater understanding of cycling and some great new product ideas (fixed-gear specific jeans with integrated bottle opener and dedicated cigarette pocket?), though the city of Denver might want to consider issuing an AMBER Alert for their „bike culture.“

Yes, for Beijing „fixters“ the light-running antics of America’s „urban“ cyclists simply cannot rival the excitement and agility of circus-like riders such as the great Serge Huercio. Also, they forego skid-patch calculators in favor of juggling patterns:

Though stopping is still called „skidding:“

Ah, the fixed-gear world, where stopping is called „skidding,“ conformity is called „individualism,“ and scavenger hunts are called „races.“ …

… Posted by BikeSnobNYC

At least there is already a positive comment about us:

September 9, 2010 10:13 AM Fergie said:
That Natooke link is the site of Ines Brunn – The best artistic cycling rider to perform in NYC since the 1800’s! She also rocked out on the very same Penny Farthing you rode at the BRA. Real cool person, and the best fixed gear rider around.

Photographer Wang took some nice pictures yesterday of me and Yu Changqing training our bike tricks. Three pictures were posted on the China.org.cn website.I find it funny that they wrote this without mentioning my name: „Bike stunt team in Beijing – Yu Changqing, a man in his 70s, does bike stunts with his German friend at Deshengmen Square in Beijing on Sept 8, 2010. Yu has been doing bike stunts for more than 60 years, and the German woman manages a bike store in Beijing.“

Wang sent his pictures to me too. Here are some of the ones I like.

Here are pictures of the tricks that we are still working on, the headstand and the handstand:

Today was a really busy day at the Natooke shop. We had many people come in. There was a performer from one of the professional artistic groups that also trains a lot on his own juggling skills as a single performer. He does bouncing balls and juggled seven in the shop bouncing them on our piece of marble to test our Italian bouncing balls that we sell.

And we also had people buy bikes, like e.g. our Italian bike.

The bike is not from Italy, but the colors were chosen like the Italian national colors. Fede had even made the chain in the colors of the Italian flag red-white-green.

Also another two built up bikes were sold. Our ready-made red aluminum fixed gear bike.

But he changed some things on the bicycle like the handlebar he changed to the straight white one which looks good on this bike.

This guy changed the handlebar on this light urban bike.

And he wanted platform pedals with the great Holdfast straps hand made in Brooklyn. They are really comfortable and he chose the special edition version which is really cool.

We also were building up this colorful fixed gear Flying Banana today. That is so much more fun than just a black or white bike.

I really like the front wheel with the white spokes on one side and the black spokes on the other side. It makes it look like just half the spokes are there depending of you eyes focus on the white or on the black.

And this Flying Banana belongs to a woman! I think Vera looks very good on her new bike. Ride safe girl!

Deshengmen is a great place to meet for doing bike tricks. I met this morning again with my 74 year old friend and we trained together. It is amazing to see how flexible he still is and how much strength and balance he has. As well as the joy you can see in his eyes.

Today Master Wen came who was teaching bike tricks to Yu Changqing. He is 80 years old and even though Master Yu claims Master Wen was better at bike tricks Master Wen says that Master Yu’s father was even better at bike tricks. It seems that both of them had learned from Yu Changqing’s father. Here they both are.

Today we kept on practicing the headstand and the handstand tricks. We did not care too much about the two professional photographers who had been on a bus and seen us doing tricks on a bicycle and then came over to take more pictures. And Master Wen was acting as our coach giving the both of us good advise. E.g. for me to keep my leg slightly bent so it looks like a curve and is more beautiful. Or giving advise how it is easier for me to mount into the handstand. It looked almost like he wanted to show me the complete handstand (he is 80 hears old) but he did not, he just jumped to show me how to get into the handstand more easily. And of course he was right, Coach Wen.